darker_london | Renee - A work of art

Renee awoke from a deep sleep only fifteen minutes before her door was due to be opened. She vaguely remembered being awake well into the night... she'd fought off the lethargy of the sedatives for some time, but of course they'd gotten her in the end. What had she been doing, though? They made it hard to remember...

Then she saw them on the table. Pieces of paper ripped into quarters, a stack of seventy-eight smaller pieces. She didn't even need to see the top one in any detail to realise what they were. This was the grotesque Tarot deck she had been working on well into the small hours of the morning, constructed from torn pages and oil pastels.

She sat down at the table and spread a few of them before her, shuddering inwardly as she looked upon them. They were uncanny, fearsome, haunting. She was no great artist, and the sedatives did nothing to help her talent, so they appeared childish... which only made them more disturbing.

The High Priestess. The black hair and large breasts made it recognisably herself. Lust... the Scarlett woman riding a lion with Jack's face. The Tower, this very hospital, with two fearsome red eyes burning above it. And of course, the red-haired, female Devil. Then there was Art, Ry enchained to his pile of books. Where had that vision come from...?

Lust and Art. VIII and XI. The numbers were crossed out and rewritten many times, as if she couldn't decide which was which. Apparently she had never come to a final decision. There were no clear numbers, just black smudges.

What was she to do with this? It must have had some meaning. Could she read with it? Why not, but what would be the point?

The door clicked open. It would have to wait for later.